MILESTONES: September 22, birthdays for Joan Jett, Scott Baio, Andrea Bocelli
Brooklyn Today
Steelworkers’ Strike: On this day in 1919, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that steel workers had gone on strike against the United States Steel Company, in several American cities, including Chicago, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, which were major centers in the industry. William Z. Foster, secretary of the Steel Workers’ National Committee, provided figures claiming that 284,000 steel workers were on strike throughout the U.S., with 71,000 in Pittsburgh alone. By contrast, employers claimed that many of their plants were still at partial or full operation, and claimed even further that most of the strikers were foreigners. The strike was expected to affect other industries, including here in Brooklyn … Meanwhile, in the borough, the Eagle reported that disaster was averted just in time, when utility workers for the Brooklyn Union Gas Company discovered that gas mains around the Palmetto Tenement Houses had been punctured. Telemetric indicators showed a rise in water throughout the system. Because of the way the mains were networked, the water rise showed up in several parts of Brooklyn, including Flatbush and Newtown. About 900,000 gas subscribers would have been endangered.
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Avenging Death: On this day in 1939, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that thousands of Romanians who were part of the outlawed Iron Guard were assassinated to avenge the death of Premier Armand Calinescu. These Rumanians were considered to be pro-Nazis … In the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt revealed that two foreign submarines had been detected on U.S. waters: off the New England and Alaska coasts, respectively. Military patrols, including of the Coast Guard, stayed in the area, particularly between the Nova Scotia province of Canada and Massachusetts’s Nantucket Island, as the “reported position of the submarines was close enough to the United States to affect this country’s interests.”